The time zones mean that viewers further west than the Central time zone can’t watch live, and can only follow along online or find alternate methods of viewing the Eastern/Central broadcast.
Now, the judges’ ability to save one of the bottom two means that the celeb with the least votes doesn’t get eliminated.
So, while Dancing with the Stars technically is largely guided by the votes of viewers, there are a lot of catches that means the dancers don’t all get advanced or eliminated based on what all fans want.